GREAT NORTHERN DIVER. 
169 
down, and in a day or two after are led to the water by their mother. They 
swim and dive extremely well even at this early stage of their existence, 
and after being fed by regurgitation for about a fortnight, receive portions 
of fish, aquatic insects, and small reptiles, until they are able to maintain 
themselves. During this period, grey feathers appear among the down 
of the back and belly, and the black quill-feathers of the wings and tail 
gradually elongate. They are generally very fat, and so clumsy as to be 
easily caught on land, if their retreat to the water be cut off. But should 
you miss your opportunity, and the birds succeed in gaining the liquid ele- 
ment, into which they drop like so many terrapins, you will be astonished 
to see them as it were run over the water with extreme celerity, leaving 
behind them a distinct furrow. This power of traversing the surface of the 
water is possessed, not only by the young and old of this species, but by all 
other kinds of swimmers, including even Grallinules and Coots. When the 
young are well able to fly, the mother entices them to remove from the 
pond or lake on which they have been bred, and leads them on wing to the 
nearest part of the sea, after which she leaves them to shift for themselves. 
Now and then, after this period, the end of August or beginning of Sep- 
tember, I have still seen the young of a brood, two or three in number, 
continuing together until they were induced to travel southward, when they 
generally set out singly. 
Having given you a figure of a young bird, taken in October, 1819, from a 
specimen obtained on the Ohio, I will not here trouble you with its descrip- 
tion, but merely state that the young undergo their first moult in December, 
when they are seen singularly patched with portions of new plumage 
beautifully speckled with white, on a bed of almost uniform ash-brown. I 
was told, while in the State of Maine, that if the young were caught soon 
after being hatched, and before they had been in the water, they would, if 
thrown into it, immediately follow a paddled canoe anywhere ; but, as I 
have not myself made the experiment, I cannot speak of this as a fact. 
Although it has been generally asserted that Loons cannot walk or run 
in an efficient manner, I feel assured that on emergency the case is very 
different. An instance which occurred to my youngest son, John Wood- 
house, who accompanied me to Labrador, may here be related. One day, 
when he was in pursuit of some King Ducks, a Loon chanced to fly 
immediately over him within shooting-distance of his enormous double- 
barrelled gun. The moment was propitious, and on firing he was glad to 
see the bird fall broken-winged on the bare granitic rocks. As if perfectly 
aware of its danger, it immediately rose erect on its feet, and inclining its 
body slightly forward, ran on, stumbled, rose again, and getting along in this 
manner actually reached the water before my son, who is by no means slow 
Vol. VIII.— 22 
